"The squeaky wheel gets the oil," Livesay said, postulating that if Snyder hadn't spoken out about the poor service Via was providing, the company would still not be paying attention to the problem.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and sometimes the squeaky wheel is just an irritating distraction. When you’re the manager and you have a squeaky wheel in your office–that person who’s always eager to voice an opinion, give advice, and monopolize a meeting–how do you make sure they don’t spoil it for everyone else?

If you believe in something you should just make it your mission to make it happen. Be that pulling together a business case at the weekend, going over and above to create a tribe of followers, making some noise. If you want a promotion, fight for it – lead a team to prove you should have it. No one is going to think you are different until you prove it in action. I was once told the squeaky wheel gets the oil and I wish I had known that from day one.